Art Glass and Glass Artists: Chemists, Craftsmen, Visionaries

Glass is one of the oldest man-made materials and certainly the most mysterious. Neither solid, liquid nor gas, neither crystal nor stone, it exists in a state of its own; smooth and hard, it is also fragile, fracturing to produce cutting edges of lethal sharpness. Glass can be colourless, transparent, brilliantly colourful or opaque depending on the precise balance of its chemical constituents; to be shaped it must be heated and reheated to extreme temperatures and as it cools it may shatter explosively without stringent precautions. Above all, worked glass is unpredictable: no two pieces will ever be identical, and what you think you placed in the kiln will rarely if ever come out exactly as you expected and planned. Glass is dangerous, difficult and glamorous; a combination which has fascinated craftsmen and artists, chemists and collectors throughout history.

£288 full price, £260 over 60s, £195 concessions
(concessions are available for ES40 holders and registered disabled people)